It would seem that Merrion House in leafy Dublin 4 is just about to be opened as a large IPAS centre.
A company called Capital Scene Unlimited had registered a notice for an exemption under Statutory Instrument 376/2023 on October 8 last for change of use from office to “temporary accommodation” for asylum seekers.
The planning exemption was confirmed in November with a notification that the scale and nature of the development would be exempted under Class 20F of the amended 2001 Planning Regulations. This is the exemption introduced by then Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to allow planning procedures to be bypassed for buildings intending to house asylum seekers.
The company provided a letter dated October 3, 2024, from the Department of Integration confirming their interest in using the building.
The plans submitted indicate extensive internal development with bedrooms on three levels with the potential to accommodate several hundred people.
The site was placed on market by Savills in September 2023 and pitched to potential buyers as a “landmark” building with “sea views” and potential for 300 apartments. Guide price was €19.75 million. The site covers almost 3 acres and is close to St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Blackrock clinic. It is a much sought-after, quiet, residential area.
According to Savill’s brochure the building offered “the potential for conversion for a variety of alternative uses such as medical, education, hotel or residential accommodation to name but a few.” Pre-planning discussions had apparently focused on part or full development for use as housing but no application was registered by the new owners with that purpose in mind.
Capital Scene is owned by Sretaw which bought the building. The two directors of Sretaw are Eamon Waters and Robert Waters. Eamon is the majority shareholder in most of the list of Sretaw companies whose ultimate ownership is not provided. The two Waters are directors, along with Andrew Paine, and owners of Sretaw (UK) Limited.
Waters was the owner of Beauparc, which owns the Panda waste company, and which he sold to the Macquarie Infrastructure Fund in 2021 for €1.4 billion. So he is not short of a few bob – and the current scramble for asylum accommodation offers the opportunity of recouping the purchase price of Merrion House in a pretty short space of time, given its size.
Work has been carried out on the site since the granting of the exemption, and the hoarding has recently been removed to reveal that it is near completion. Gript has been informed that a security company is now in place, apparently in preparation for the arrival of persons to take up accommodation there.
Locals had believed that Waters wished to proceed with the residential development, but that he had encountered planning difficulties and that this may have been a factor in opting to use the site as an IPAS centre. Gript has been informed that while there is local concern over the development, some are reluctant to voice this in fear of being labelled as racist. There are no local objections registered with Dublin City Council.
Nor are there any registered applications by any of Waters’ companies for the use of the site as residential accommodation. The application from Capital Scene Unlimited refers to ten previous applications related to what was the Jacob’s Engineering headquarters, but the most recent is from 2013.
A High Court case was taken in January this year by an environmental activist John Conway who was the successful plaintiff in the Crooksling case. That forced the State to revoke the Statutory Instrument that provided the exemption, and Conway is also challenging the 2023 planning regulations in regard to Merrion House.
Conway is claiming that the granting of exemptions such as that for Merrion House is outside of the Minister for Housing’s statutory powers as it makes no allowance for the assessment of such exempted development on environmental grounds. In his affidavit, Conway specifically refers to the failure to make an assessment of the likely impact on Dublin Bay under the Habitats Directive.
For the moment, however, the residents and patients who will be sharing their space with hundreds of applicants for International Protection must buck up and enjoy the experience.